aug  27  i»\a 


A  New  Method  for  Determining  Rate 

of   Progress  in  a  Small 

School  System 


By    Nobman    Cameron,  Ph.D. 

\\ 
West  Chester,  Pa. 


A  THESIS  SUBMITTED  TO  THE  FACULTY  OF  THE  GRADUATE 

SCHOOL  OF   THE    UNIVERSITY   OF   PENNSYLVANIA  IN 

PARTIAL  FULFILMENT  OF  THE  REQUIREMENTS 

FOR   THE    DEGREE   OF   DOCTOR 

OF   PHILOSOPHY 


»   •     •   »  » 


Reprinted  from  The  Psychological  Clinic,  Vol.  V,  Nos.  8  and  9, 
January  and  February,  1912. 


A  NEW  METHOD  FOR  DETERMINING  RATE  OF 
PROGRESS  IN  A  SMALL  SCHOOL  SYSTEM. 

By  Nobman  Camebon,  Ph.D., 
West  Chester,  Pa. 


Almost  all  of  the  articles  appearing  within  the  past  few 
years  on  retardation  and  elimination  have  been  based  upon  a  study 
of  large  school  systems,  because,  in  the  first  place,  city  systems 
furnish  uniform  conditions  of  grading;  and  in  the  second  place, 
large  masses  of  statistics  preclude  the  erroneous  conclusions  which 
would  result  from  insufficient  data.  In  this  paper,  on  the  con- 
trary, care  has  been  taken  to  study  the  school  history  of  each 
individual  pupil  in  a  small  school  system,  and  to  ascertain 
accurately  the  vital  statistics  necessary  to  define  the  true  state  of 
affairs. 

The  present  investigation  was  undertaken  with  five  pur- 
poses in  view : 

1.  To  find  out  the  actual  conditions  existing  in  a  small 

school  system  over  a  number  of  years ; 

2.  To  learn  the  real  extent  of  retardation,  acceleration,  and 

elimination  of  pupils  by  following  their  progress 
from  the  day  they  entered  school  until  the  day  they 
finally  left  it; 

3.  To  draw  a  valid  contrast  between  the  number  beginning 

and  the  number  leaving  school ; 

4.  To  compare  actual  with  hypothetical  results ;  and, 

5.  To  make  such  suggestions  as  may  help  in  ameliorating 

the  conditions  which  are  found  to  exist. 

The  facts  have  been  obtained  largely  from  the  reports  of  the 
white  schools  of  Elkton,  Maryland,  and  through  the  cooperation 
of  many  teachers  and  students  in  the  schools  and  of  friends  out- 
side it  was  possible  to  obtain  much  valuable  data  which  the  reports 
could  not  furnish.  Many  of  the  teachers  had  taught  in  the 
schools  for  a  period  as  long  as  that  covered  by  the  investigation, 
and  the  writer  himself,  a  citizen  of  the  town,  was  for  some  time 
connected  with  the  schools.  The  facts  are  considered  under  two 
heads:  (1)  the  elementary  and  high  school  history  of  295  males 
and  females  during  the  years  1891-1892  to  1908-9,  inclusive; 
and  (2)  the  progress  of  pupils  (1514  in  all)  in  the  elementary 

(1) 

254941 


2  THE  P8YCH0L0  GICAL  CLINIC. 

and  high  schools  for  eleven  years,  from  1898-9  to  1908-9, 
inclusive. 

The  town  in  question  is  a  small  county  seat.  Its  population 
has  remained  about  the  same  for  the  past  twenty  years,  and  the 
few  industries  and  the  number  of  employees  have  not  changed 
materially  in  that  time.  The  economic  conditions  are  such  that 
practically  all  the  children  could  remain  in  school  until  graduation. 

The  high  school  was  for  a  number  of  years  the  only  one 
in  the  county,  and  is  still  much  the  largest  and  best  equipped. 
Until  1902-3  there  were  six  grades  in  the  elementary  school,  and 
four  in  the  high  school.  In  that  year  one  grade  was  added  to 
the  elementary  course,  thus  requiring  the  normal  child  to  remain 
in  school  eleven  years  before  graduation.  The  high  school  course 
of  study  was  not  affected  in  any  important  degree  by  the  change. 
Two  additional  facts  have  an  important  bearing  on  this  investiga- 
tion: (1)  the  age  of  entrance  is  six  years,  and  (2)  there  is  no  com- 
pulsory attendance  law  in  Maryland. 

The  writer  believes  he  is  justified  in  calling  his  method  "new" 
for  the  following  reasons:  (1)  the  complete  school  history  of  295 
pupils  and  the  school  history  of  1514  pupils  during  the  time 
spent  in  the  Elkton  system  are  the  basis  for  obtaining  his  results ; 
(2)  elimination  is  based  on  the  actual  number  of  beginners;  (3) 
the  rate  of  progress  and  retardation  is  based  on  a  system  of  units 
of  progress;  and  (4)  his  measure  of  the  efficiency  of  a  school 
system  is  new. 

The  conclusions  arrived  at  in  the  following  pages  will  not, 
of  course,  apply  in  all  respects  to  every  city  school  system.  They 
will  be  indicative,  however,  of  what  may  be  found  in  com- 
munities where  conditions  are  similar  to  those  here  prevailing, 
and  a  knowledge  of  the  facts  of  retardation,  elimination,  etc.,  is 
quite  as  indispensable  in  the  administration  of  a  small  as  of  a 
large  school  system. 

Retardation. 

At  the  outset  of  this  discussion  it  seems  necessary  to  define 
certain  terms  already  in  use  in  the  study  of  school  statistics  and 
to  introduce  some  others. 

There  are  three  classes  of  pupils  who  drop  out  of  school: 
(1)  those  who  graduate;  (2)  those  who  transfer  to  other  schools; 
and  (3)  those  who  leave  for  other  causes.  It  is  to  this  latter  class 
that  the  word  elimination  usually  refers. 

The  rate  of  progress  for  a  school  means  the  average  progress 
of  all  pupils  through  the  grades ;  that  is  to  say,  the  record  of  the 


RATE  OF  PROGRESS.  3 

school  system  will  be  a  summation  upon  the  records  made  by  the 
individual  pupils  in  it.  The  movement  of  a  pupil  through  his 
course  may  be  composed  of  three  elements  or  forces;  (1)  a  normal 
forward  movement,  of  a  unit  of  work  done  in  one  term;  (2)  a 
doubly  rapid  movement  of  two  units  of  work  in  one  term ;  and  (3) 
a  retarded  movement  of  one  unit  of  work  in  two  or  more  terms. 
When  a  pupil  moves  faster  than  the  normal  rate,  i.e.  does  a  unit 
of  work  in  less  than  the  required  time,  he  is  said  to  be  accelerated 
in  his  movement  through  the  grades.  This  term  is  properly  the 
converse  of  retarded  in  its  customary  meaning. 

Among  those  interested  in  the  work  of  our  public  schools 
there  is  a  demand  to  know  not  only  that  a  pupil  is  moving  at  an 
abnormal  rate  of  speed,  but  what  the  rate  of  that  movement  is. 
Most  writers  on  the  subject  of  retardation  have  used  the  term 
retarded  to  mean  that  a  pupil  is  above  age  for  his  grade,  irre- 
spective of  the  reason.  Thus  a  pupil  twelve  years  of  age  and  in 
the  second  grade,  would  be  considered  retarded  whether  he  had 
attended  school  two  years  or  six.  For  others  the  word  signifies 
that  a  pupil  has  failed  of  promotion  one  or  more  times,  and  is  in 
consequence  behind  his  class  for  as  many  years.  The  first  inter- 
pretation of  the  word  has  no  doubt  arisen  out  of  the  method  neces- 
sary for  the  study  of  large  masses  of  school  statistics,  and  it  has 
been  tentatively  accepted  by  most  persons  with  the  recognition 
that  the  results  are  only  approximately  correct  and  in  most  cases 
merely  indicate  a  tendency.  Its  second  use  has  been  advocated 
by  some  who  believe  that  the  former  method  does  not  give  exact 
results ;  that  it  is  unfair  to  the  school  because  it  considers  a  pupil 
retarded  who  has  entered  school  late,  and  because  it  takes  no 
account  of  a  large  number  of  pupils  who  have  advanced  faster  than 
one  grade  per  year. 

In  the  present  study  the  second  point  of  view  (progress 
method)  has  been  accepted  principally  because  it  shows  the  actual 
condition  of  retardation.  At  the  same  time  comparisons  of  results 
with  the  aggregate  standard  will  be  made  to  note  how  far  the 
schools* from  which  the  facts  have  been  collected  agree  in  this 
respect.  One  would  hardly  be  justified  in  applying  this  method  to 
a  large  school  system.  The  vast  amount  of  time  necessary,  and 
the  utter  impossibility  of  securing  certain  facts,  would  make  it 
impracticable.  In  the  judgment  of  the  writer,  it  is  of  great 
importance  in  the  present  state  of  school  records  that  a  method 
approximating  as  nearly  as  possible  the  real  conditions,  be  devised 
for  measuring  the  degree  of  retardation  in  our  schools.     Such  a 


4  THE  PSYCHOLO  OICAL  CLINIC. 

one  is  herein  described.     It  will  show  definitely  the  extent  of 
retardation  for  which  the  system  is  responsible. 

Since  the  word  retardation,  in  the  second  sense,  refers  to  the 
progress  of  a  pupil  through  the  grades,  it  is  necessary  that  a 
new  set  of  terms  be  adopted  to  designate  the  different  degrees  of 
retardation.  Three  boys  may  begin  school  the  same  year ;  at  the 
end  of  the  eleventh  year  one  may  be  in  the  last  year  of  the  high 
school,  one  in  the  second  year,  and  the  third  in  the  fourth  grade 
of  the  elementary  school.  It  is  obvious  that  these  pupils  have 
passed  through  the  grades  at  different  rates  of  speed,  and  it  is 
important  to  measure  the  rate.  For  this  reason  the  terms  units 
of  normal  progress,  minus  progress,  and  plus  progress  are  here 
proposed  to  convey  the  manner  and  rate  of  movement  of  a  pupil 
through  the  grades.  A  unit  of  normal  progress  means  that  a  pupil 
completes  a  term's  work  on  time;  a  unit  of  minus  progress,  that 
he  completes  the  term's  work  in  double  the  required  time;  and  a 
unit  of  plus  progress,  that  he  completes  two  terms  in  the  time 
required  for  one.  For  example,  a  pupil  in  the  fifth  grade  in  the 
eighth  year  of  his  school  life  may  be  there  because  he  has  made 
one  unit  of  plus  and  four  units  of  minus  progress,  or  three  units  of 
minus  progress,  etc.  Instead  of  saying  that  a  pupil  is  retarded  or 
accelerated  so  many  years,  it  is  possible  to  express  his  school  status 
in  terms  of  so  many  units  of  plus,  normal,  or  minus  progress,  thus 
using  a  definite  terminology  for  designating  the  manner  by  which 
he  has  arrived  at  any  point  in  his  school  career.  The  word 
retardation  may  still  be  used  as  before  to  denote  the  condition, 
but  without  the  duty  of  serving  also  as  the  measure  of  this 
condition. 

As  stated  before  it  was  not  possible  to  secure  absolutely  com- 
plete records,  yet  295  pupils  were  found  who  had  passed  their 
whole  school  life  in  the  Elkton  schools  and  had  either  dropped 
out  or  graduated.  It  is  first  attempted  to  show  the  exact  amount 
of  retardation  among  these  pupils,  and  subsequently,  to  study  it 
among  1514  pupils  who  attended  school  during  some  part  or  all 
of  eleven  years.  Table  I  (B)  shows  the  distribution  of  these  pupils 
from  the  first  year  of  their  school  life  until  the  last  one  dropped 
out  in  the  fourteenth  year.  The  numbers  above  the  black  line 
give  the  percentages  of  those  making  normal  progress,  while  the 
numbers  below  the  line  indicate  the  percentages  retarded  . 

Instead  of  finding  an  ideal  attendance  of  100  per  cent  in 
the  next  higher  grade  each  succeeding  year,  we  find  the  real  con- 
dition as  displayed  in  the  table.     Here  are  295  different  pupils 


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6  TEE  PSYCHOLOGICAL  CLINIC. 

who  have  started  the  race  of  school  life  together,  scattered  along 
the  course,  further  and  further  apart  with  the  passing  of  each 
year.  In  the  eighth  year  eighteen  are  beginning  another  lap 
together,  having  kept  up  the  required  speed,  two  have  gained  a 
lap,  and  178  are  falling  behind,  some  one  lap,  some  three,  and 
a  few  as  many  as  six  laps.  Again,  in  the  eleventh  year,  when 
most  of  them  should  have  crossed  the  finishing  line  together,  only 
six  do  so  without  having  lost  ground.  One  has  lost  one  lap  and 
regained  it,  and  still  another  has  lost  a  lap  and  not  regained  it, 
but  finishes  with  the  other  seven  on  account  of  the  shorter  course. 
What  has  become  of  the  other  287  in  these  eleven  years?  Two 
hundred  and  forty-two  have  dropped  out  and  the  remaining  forty- 
five  are  found  in  all  the  grades  from  the  fourth  up  to  and  including 
the  third  year  of  the  high  school. 

Taking  as  a  basis  the  number  of  children  in  school,  about  one 
out  of  ten  in  the  eleventh  year  of  school  life  has  passed  through 
the  grades  without  failure,  and  considering  the  number  of  begin- 
ners as  a  basis  the  ratio  is  almost  one  to  fifty.  Ayres  (1)  says: 
"In  our  city  schools  on  an  average,  three  out  of  every  four  have 
failed  at  least  once  by  the  time  the  eighth  year  of  school  life  is 
reached,  and  the  whole  number  of  failures  is  so  large  as  not  to  fall 
far  short  of  averaging  two  for  each  pupil  who  has  failed."  By 
reference  to  table  I  (A),  it  will  be  observed  that  the  whole  number 
of  pupils  in  school  this  year  average  2.28  units  of  minus  progress. 
Of  the  pupils  in  school  during  the  eighth  year,  45  have  failed  once ; 
68,  twice;  39,  three  times;  27,  four  times;  10,  five  times,  and  3, 
six  times,  an  average  of  2.5  failures  for  192  pupils.  Hence, 
the  average  number  of  failures  is  somewhat  larger  than  that  found 
by  Ayres. 

In  the  same  table  are  given  the  percentages  of  the  retarded  and 
non-retarded  for  each  year  according  to  the  progress  (exact) 
method  and  the  age-grade  method  so  extensively  applied  by  many 
investigators,  the  latter  considering  as  retarded  all  pupils  of  the 
first  grade  who  are  nine  years  or  over,  all  in  the  second  grade,  ten 
years  or  over,  and  so  on.  We  are  struck  with  the  great  disparity 
in  the  results  obtained  from  the  two  methods.  In  the  first  few 
years  the  age-grade  standard  shows  a  low  percentage  of  retarda- 
tion, with  a  gradual  increase  in  the  later  years ;  for  example,  only 
19  per  cent  were  retarded  the  third  year,  30  per  cent  the  fourth 
year,  38  per  cent  in  the  fifth  year,  and  47  per  cent  the  sixth  year, 
whereas  the  actual  retardation  for  these  same  years  based  on  the 
number  of  pupils  in  school  was  79,   86,   89   and  91  per  cent, 


RATE  OF  PROGRESS.  7 

respectively.  The  increase  in  percentages  of  retardation,  accord- 
ing to  the  age-grade  standard,  indicates  that  the  degree  of  retarda- 
tion is  becoming  greater  with  each  added  year.  Only  two  of  the 
beginners  were  retarded  by  this  method,  and  accordingly  it  is  only 
as  they  lagged  behind  that  they  passed  over  into  the  retarded  class. 
To  illustrate  the  failure  of  this  method  to  catch  the  retarded,  it 
may  be  said  that  while  it  gives  39  per  cent  of  the  pupils  of  the 
first  grade  in  the  third  year  as  retarded,  as  a  matter  of  fact  every 
child  in  that  grade  has  twice  failed  of  promotion. 

Seventy-six  per  cent  of  the  pupils  failed  in  the  first  grade 
the  first  year,  which  throws  light  upon  the  large  percentage  of 
retarded  pupils  in  the  later  years.  Of  the  number  of  pupils  who 
failed  in  the  first  year  and  who  were  in  school  at  least  eight  years, 
twenty-three  progressed  normally  for  the  remaining  time,  eleven 
of  them  being  present  seventy-five  per  cent  of  the  year  or  more. 
If  the  failures  in  the  first  year  be  excluded  from  the  calculations, 
147,  or  71  per  cent,  of  the  208  pupils  in  the  eighth  year  fall  into 
the  retarded  class.  From  the  point  of  view  of  the  child  there  seems 
to  be  no  good  reason  for  not  counting  the  first  year  of  school  life, 
since  the  added  year  becomes  a  prolific  cause  of  elimination  when 
the  child  finds  himself  behind  grade  in  his  fourteenth  year.  From 
the  point  of  view  of  the  school  system  there  may  be  reasons  for 
omitting  it. 

Passing  to  the  study  of  retardation  among  1514  pupils  as 
found  in  the  various  grades  in  eleven  years  of  this  same  school 
system,  one  is  confronted  with  the  problem  of  devising  a  method 
to  show  the  per  cent  of  retardation  for  each  grade  during  any  year 
and  the  extent  to  which  each  pupil  is  retarded,  i.  e.  the  number 
of  failures,  or  units  of  minus  progress  made  for  the  time  by  each 
pupil. 

The  important  thing  to  know  about  the  child  is  not  how  many 
years  he  is  behind  the  theoretical  grade  for  his  age,  but  (1) 
whether  or  not  he  has  been  retarded  in  the  system  in  question, 
and  (2)  if  retarded,  how  many  units  of  minus  progress  he  has 
made.  With  this  in  mind  the  present  method  of  determining 
the  first  of  the  factors  named  above  has  been  adopted,  and  all 
pupils  that  were  not  present  during  two  years  were  eliminated 
from  the  calculations  on  the  ground  that  a  child  must  be  in  the 
system  for  this  period  of  time  to  show  retardation  at  all. 

Table  II  gives  the  per  cents  retarded  for  each  grade  and  each 
year.  In  the  first  line  for  each  year  are  the  per  cents  retarded  by 
the  progress   method.      The   second  line  contains  the   per  cents 


8 


THE  PSYCHOLOGICAL  CLINIC. 


according  to  the  age-grade  method.  Owing  to  the  fact  that  in 
the  application  of  the  progress  method  all  pupils  who  have  not 
been  present  during  two  years  are  omitted  from  the  discussion, 
there  are  no  per  cents  for  the  year  1898-9  for  this  method. 

The  per  cent  of  retardation  increases  rapidly  from  1899-1900 
when  the  pupils  had  been  in  school  only  two  years  to  64  per 


TABLE  II. 
PERCENTAGES  RETARDED  BY  PROGRESS  AND  AGE-GRADE  METHODS.      (1514  PUPILS.) 

(The  upper  line  for  each  year  gives  the  per  cent  for  the  progress  method, 
the  lower  line  for  the  age-grade  method.) 


Elementary  School         High  School 

E 

H 
39 

T 

39 

Years 

1  |2|3|4|5|6|7|1|2|3|4 

1898-1899 

21 

35 

47 

52 

56 

44 

51 

26 

13 

60 

34 

1899-1900 

100 
21 

IS 
27 

28 
42 

U 
47 

49 

0 
44 

26 
35 

6 
35 

15 
41 

5 

83 
35 

U 
33 

25 
34 

1900-1901 

too 

23 

78 
30 

89 
38 

81 
35 

18 
40 

J7 
40 

4* 
38 

S7 
33 

7 
26 

7 
33 

45 
32 

25 
34 

47 
33 

1901-1902 

100 
15 

68 
31 

78 
38 

56 
44 

60 
46 

29 
32 

26 
34 

80 
36 

#7 
21 

10 
15 

05 
32 

22 
17 

55 
31 

1902-1903 

100 
15 

60 
20 

U 
40 

76 
38 

46 
34 

50 
29 

28 
31 

00 
41 

50 
42 

45 
25 

30 
20 

66 

28 

50 
37 

04 
30 

1903-1904 

100 
9 

68 
23 

66 
23 

65 
31 

74 
33 

38 

40 
32 

#7 
27 

41 
38 

45 
29 

88 
27 

^4 
25 

37 
30 

55 
36 

1904-1905 

100 

7 

68 
20 

66 
38 

60 
27 

60 
27 

70 
25 

56 
35 

87 
21 

15 
21 

53 
36 

43 
27 

66 
24 

33 
26 

50 
25 

1905-1906 

100 
13 

61 
10 

71 
32 

71 
35 

66 
27 

27 

03 
23 

55 
25 

£0 
14 

18 
11 

26 
30 

00 
23 

25 
21 

50 
23 

1906-1907 

100 
17 

68 
24 

60 
24 

85 
38 

64 
26 

62 
23 

45 
27 

58 
14 

27 
22 

0 
5 

13 
13 

05 
25 

29 
14 

50 
23 

1907-1908 

100 
14 

70 
25 

68 
18 

70 
37 

78 
28 

55 
17 

64 
17 

50 
16 

£0 
6 

£1 
10 

11 
11 

71 
22 

20 
11 

62 
20 

1908-1909 

100 

11 

62 
16 

67 
33 

78 
31 

01 
38 

0S9 

29 

50 
17 

17 

41 
27 

27 
24 

28 
11 

00 
23 

43 
20 

03 
23 

cent  in  1902-03.  From  that  point  there  is  a  decline  for  two  or 
three  years,  with  a  rise  to  63  per  cent  in  1908-09.  The  great- 
est amount  of  retardation,  as  one  would  expect,  is  in  the  earlier 
grades.  Here  most  of  the  failures  occur,  and  here  is  found 
the  greatest  congestion,  which  is  relieved  only  by  the  dropping 
out  process  that  takes  place  at  the  ages  of  twelve,  thirteen  and 


RATE  OF  PROGRESS.  9 

fourteen.  The  first  grade  shows  one  hundred  per  cent  retarded 
in  each  year,  due  to  the  fact  that  the  only  pupils  considered  in 
our  calculations  must  have  been  in  school  more  than  one  year. 
The  next  largest  percentages  of  retardation  are  in  the  second, 
third,  fourth,  and  fifth  grades.  A  glance  at  the  columns  headed 
"E"  (elementary  school),  "H"  (high  school),  will  give  sufficient 
evidence  that  a  larger  per  cent  of  the  pupils  in  the  elementary 
school  is  retarded  than  in  the  high  school.  This  proves  that  the 
pupils  making  the  most  failures  drop  out  in  the  lower  grades. 

After  the  year  1899-1900  there  is  an  almost  continuously 
increasing  difference  between  the  percentages  calculated  by  this 
method  and  those  by  the  age-grade  method.  This  difference  reaches 
its  maximum  in  the  last  two  years,  where  the  per  cent  of  retarded 
according  to  the  progress  method  is  approximately  three  times 
that  of  the  other  method.  It  is  probably  more  nearly  correct  to 
say  that  if  the  same  pupils  were  involved  in  the  two  methods,  the 
former  would  show  more  than  twice  as  many  retarded  as  the 
latter.  The  reason  for  this  conclusion  is  that  all  beginners  are 
excluded  in  the  first  and  included  in  the  last  method.  Moreover, 
out  of  the  1051  pupils  in  the  schools  more  than  one  year,  587,  or 
56  per  cent  failed  at  least  once,  i.  e.  the  system's  retardation  is 
56  per  cent.  According  to  the  age-grade  standard  it  is  28  per 
cent  for  the  1514  pupils.  Superintendent  Lurton  shows  (2)  that 
the  percentages  of  retardation  based  on  the  Minnesota  standard 
(pupils  under  seven  in  the  first  grade,  under  eight  in  the  second 
grade,  and  so  on  for  the  other  grades,  being  classed  as  non-retarded) 
are  approximately  double  those  based  on  the  age-grade  standard. 
That  the  latter  method  gives  results  greatly  in  favor  of  the  system, 
there  seems  to  be  no  reasonable  doubt,  its  chief  value  consisting 
in  the  fact  that  it  discloses  a  tendency  toward  retardation  and 
offers  a  facile  method  of  comparing  the  percentages  of  retarda- 
tion from  year  to  year,  and  its  chief  defect  being  that  it  fails  to 
show  the  correct  extent  of  that  retardation. 

According  to  Ayres'  (3)  list  of  33  cities,  Elkton  by  his 
standard  of  measurement  would  range  from  twenty-fourth  place 
in  1898-99  to  eighth  place  in  1908-09.  There  is  little  doubt  that 
the  retarding  forces  were  stronger  eleven  years  ago  in  this  town 
than  they  are  to-day,  but  they  are  still  too  potent  in  the  early 
grades  for  the  welfare  of  the  child. 

The  second  fact  to  be  ascertained  concerning  these  pupils 
during  eleven  years  is  the  degree  of  retardation,  i.  e.  the  relative 
number  of  units  of  minus  progress  made  by  them.     Collectively 


10  THE  PSYCH OLO  GICAL  CLINIC. 

they  made  3938  units  in  all,  of  which  26  were  units  of  plus 
progress,  937  units  of  minus  progress,  and  2975  units  of  normal 
progress,  an  average  for  each  pupil  of  3.74,  .02,  .89,  and  2.83, 
respectively,  or  1,  24  and  75  per  cent,  respectively,  for  each  of 
the  three  kinds  of  units.  Three  hundred  and  fifty  pupils  in 
school  in  1908-9  averaged  1,  23,  and  76  per  cent,  and  the  295 
pupils  1,  32,  and  67  per  cent,  respectively,  for  the  three  kinds  of 
units.  The  percentages  of  normal  progress  made  by  the  first  two 
groups  is  about  the  same,  but  that  made  by  the  third  group  is  some- 
what smaller.  The  difference  is  to  be  accounted  for  largely  by 
the  fact  that  the  complete  school  history  of  the  first  two  groups  is 
not  known,  and  especially  that  part  of  school  life  when  the  retard- 
ing force  is  strongest, — in  the  early  grades.  If  we  keep  in  mind 
the  fact  that  326  of  the  1051  pupils  entered  the  system  from  out- 
side schools  and  that  195  of  this  last  number  entered  the  high 
school  directly,  we  can  understand  the  cause  for  the  disparity  in 
percentages  of  the  first  and  third  groups,  and  between  the  second 
and  third  groups.  Table  I  (A)  furnishes  the  same  data  for  the 
295  pupils  of  each  year. 

A  casual  comparison  of  progress  with  retardation  might  lead 
one  to  believe  that  the  percentages  contradict  one  another.  The 
fact  is  they  do  not ;  the  former  corroborate  the  latter.  What  an 
average  of  27  per  cent  of  units  of  minus  progress  means  is,  that 
according  to  the  progress  method  of  determining  retardation,  about 
90  per  cent  of  the  pupils  who  have  been  in  school  for  eight  or  ten 
years  will  be  retarded.  This  same  per  cent  of  units  of  minus 
(progress  in  the  fifth  year  of  school  life  would  imply  a  much 
smaller  per  cent  of  retardation. 

Causes  of  Retardation. 

The  one  cause  of  retardation  from  the  point  of  view  of  this 
investigation  is  failure  of  promotion,  and  the  causes  that  produce 
these  failures  are  directly  responsible  for  the  condition  of  retarda- 
tion in  schools.  It  has  already  been  pointed  out  that  a  retarded 
pupil  is  one  who  for  any  reason  has  failed  one  or  more  times  to 
make  the  next  higher  grade.  The  pupil  himself  may  be  responsible 
for  it,  the  parents  may  be  blamed  for  it,  or  the  school  system  itself 
may  be  at  fault.  It  is  clearly  evident  each  year  that  the  school  is 
having  thrust  upon  it  greater  responsibility  for  the  social,  moral, 
and  mental  welfare  of  the  child.  This  does  not  mean  that  the 
responsibility  of  the  home  is  being  in  any  degree  lessened,  but 
that  the  state  is  assuming  certain  functions  that  neither  of  these 


RATE  OF  PROGRESS. 


11 


agencies  has  exercised  in  the  past,  or  if  they  exercised  them,  did 
so  only  in  a  spasmodic  way. 

By  referring  to  table  III  it  will  be  seen  that  the  major  por- 
tion of  the  failures  is  in  the  early  grades,  78  per  cent  of  one  group 
and  90  per  cent  of  the  other  being  in  the  first  four  grades.  Com- 
paratively few  failures  are  made  in  the  high  school.  The  largest 
per  cents  of  failures  are  in  the  first  and  third  grades.  Conse- 
quently, we  may  expect  to  find  the  greatest  congestion  in  these  two 
grades,  and  such  is  the  case  in  every  one  of  the  eleven  years  of 
school  except  two.  Not  only  is  it  true  for  the  town,  but  it  is  also 
true  for  the  county,  for  seven  out  of  eleven  years,  and  in  the  state 


TABLE    III. — FAILURES    MADE    BY    1051    AND    295    PUPILS. 


1 

§ 
Si 

IB 

a 

s* 

0 

S 

CO   OS 

1-1  * 

H 

Grade 

1    1    2 

3   |   4 

5    |    6 

7 

1 

2 

3 

4 

1 

2 

a 

4 

E 

7H 

6H 

T 

Failures     by     1051 

401     76 

43i      8 

359     78 

51     11 

134i  120 

14!    13 

119     78 

17|    11 

73 1    27 

8       3 

30     10 

4|      2 

17 
2 
6 

1 

7 

1 
5 

1 

1 
1 

1 
1 

48 
5 

10 
1 

24 
2 
4 
1 

7 

1 

1 

848 
91 

680 
97 

9 
1 

7 
1 

80 
8 

14 
2 

937 
100 
701 
100 

Per  cent  per  grade. . . . 
Failures  by  295  pupils 
Per  cent  per  grade. . . . 

outside  of  Baltimore  City  for  eight  out  of  ten  years.  (7)  Hence 
it  is  in  these  lower  grades  that  the  retarding  forces  are  most 
potent. 

Contributory  to  the  principal  cause  of  retardation  are  the 
following :  irregular  attendance,  late  entrance,  leaving  before  final 
examinations,  lack  of  capacity  for  work,  indifference  on  the  part 
of  the  pupil,  poor  teaching,  physical  defects,  too  much  work  and 
many  minor  causes  closely  related  with  those  named. 

"No  doubt  the  most  important  of  these  secondary  causes  is 
irregular  attendance.  Under  this  may  be  included  late  entrance 
and  leaving  before  examinations.  There  is  naturally  supposed  to 
be  a  definite  relation  between  the  content  of  the  course  of  study 
and  the  time  a  pupil  should  spend  in  school.  We  provide  in  some 
districts  ten  months,  in  others  nine,  and  in  still  others  eight  months, 
more  or  less,  of  school.  Yet  there  is  great  uniformity  in  the 
quantity  of  the  subjects  the  pupils  are  expected  to  assimilate  in 
these  different  periods  of  time. 

Of  the  295  pupils,  38  per  cent  of  the  non-promoted  and  77 


12  THE  PSYCHOLO  GICAL  CLINIC. 

of  the  promoted  attended  three-fourths  time  or  over.  Of  the  1051 
pupils  the  percentages  for  the  same  period  are  42  and  84.  That 
is,  about  80  out  of  every  hundred  of  the  promoted  and  40  out 
of  the  same  number  of  non-promoted  attend  three-fourths  time. 
Again,  out  of  every  hundred  pupils  of  those  whose  complete  school 
history  is  known,  making  three-fourths  time  or  better,  82  are 
promoted  and  18  are  not.  And  for  every  hundred  of  the  1051 
making  three-fourths  time  or  more,  these  numbers  are  86  and  14. 
If  the  first  and  second  grades  are  omitted  in  making  the  calcula- 
tions, the  number  of  failures  made  by  every  hundred  pupils  will 
range  from  11  to  14,  and  the  number  of  promotions  from  86  to  89. 
Of  the  number  making  between  one-half  and  three-fourths  time  the 
number  of  promoted  and  the  number  of  non-promoted  out  of  every 
hundred  are  57  and  43,  respectively.  For  those  present  less  than 
one-half  time,  from  70  to  79  fail  while  from  21  to  30  succeed  in 
getting  into  the  next  higher  grade.  Thus  it  will  be  seen  a  high 
per  cent  of  attendance  is  a  necessary  qualification  for  promotion. 

In  this  study,  "entering  late"  means  that  the  pupil  did  not 
enroll  the  first  month  of  the  term ;  "leaving  early,"  that  the  pupil 
left  before  examination  time  at  the  end  of  the  scholastic  year.  Of 
the  total  promoted,  10  per  cent,  and  of  the  total  non-promoted, 
46  per  cent,  entered  late,  left  early,  or  both  entered  late  and  left 
early.  That  is,  about  10  out  of  every  hundred  promoted  make  the 
next  grade  in  spite  of  the  conditions,  and  46  out  of  every  hundred 
of  the  non-promoted  may  lay  the  blame  in  part  to  these  conditions. 
Out  of  every  hundred  enrolments,  7  of  those  entering  late  or 
leaving  early  were  promoted  and  15  not  promoted.  Of  these  15, 
3  failed  on  account  of  late  entrance,  7  on  account  of  leaving  early, 
and  5  on  account  of  both  of  these  conditions.  Thus,  for  these  two 
causes,  twice  as  many  failed  as  passed.  In  producing  non- 
promotions,  leaving  early  seems  to  be  more  than  one  and  one-half 
times  as  potent  as  entering  late.  This  is  in  accord  with  what  we 
might  expect  to  find.  Many  pupils  enter  school  a  month  late,  and 
in  the  earlier  grades  readily  make  up  the  work  and  are  passed 
into  the  next  class.  But  the  pupils  who  leave  before  the  final 
examinations  at  the  end  of  the  year  have  no  chance  of  promotion 
unless  they  are  given  special  examinations  at  the  beginning  of 
the  next  term,  or  are  promoted  on  trial. 

That  too  much  or  too  difficult  work  is  an  important  factor  in 
producing  retardation  admits  of  no  doubt.  Two  pieces  of  evidence 
are  offered  in  support  of  this  fact.  First,  the  per  cent  of  failures 
in  the  third  grade  is  almost  twice  as  large  as  for  the  second  grade. 


RATE  OF  PROGRESS.  13 

In  the  third  grade  the  addition  to  the  content  of  the  course  of 
study  is  much  greater  in  comparison  with  that  made  to  the  second 
or  fourth  grades.  Secondly,  the  per  cent  of  failures  made  by 
pupils  of  the  1514  group  in  the  early  high  school  is  about  eight 
times  as  many  as  that  for  the  later  high  school.  The  course  of 
study  was  then  less  flexible  than  in  later  years,  and  in  consequence 
students  had  a  much  greater  content  to  master.  It  is  also  a  fact 
that  a  larger  per  cent  of  pupils  of  the  high  school  with  six  pre- 
liminary grades  than  of  the  one  with  seven  preliminary  grades 
made  three-fourths  time  and  failed.  Since  a  larger  per  cent  of 
pupils  in  the  first  than  in  the  second  high  school  failed  of  promotion 
it  must  be  attributed  to  either  too  much  work,  or  more  stringent 
methods  of  promotion. 

Lack  of  capacity  and  lack  of  application  as  factors  in  pro- 
ducing retardation  are  well  illustrated  among  those  pupils  who 
make  90  per  cent  of  attendance  and  yet  fail  of  promotion.  Just 
how  these  failures  should  be  distributed  between  the  two  factors  is 
difficult  to  say.  Seventeen  per  cent  of  the  total  number  of  failures 
made  by  the  295  pupils  and  19  per  cent  of  those  made  by  the 
1051  pupils  occurred  in  spite  of  the  fact  that  these  pupils  attended 
between  90  and  100  per  cent  of  the  school  year.  This  means  that 
probably  20  out  of  every  hundred  failures  are  to  be  charged  to 
either  lack  of  capacity  or  to  indifference. 

In  order  to  ascertain  whether  or  not  transferring  from  one 
school  system  to  another  occasions  retardation,  the  average  age  of 
422  pupils  entering  the  first  year  of  the  high  school  from  outside 
schools  was  compared  with  that  of  the  pupils  entering  the  same 
class  from  the  town  system.  The  average  age  of  the  former  was 
14  and  of  the  latter  14.1  years.  There  is  no  evidence  here  that 
there  is  a  loss  in  the  transfer.  However,  there  seems  to  be  little 
doubt  that  there  is  a  loss  of  considerable  proportions  in  many 
systems.  The  equality  of  these  average  ages  may  be  accounted 
for  by  the  greater  retardation  in  the  system  in  question  than  in 
that  from  which  the  pupils  come,  but  there  is  no  evidence  to  sup- 
port this. 

Poor  teaching  as  a  cause  of  failures  in  school  work  is  one 
that  is  difficult  to  estimate  in  its  effect.  Irregular  attendance  is 
in  many  cases  chargeable  to  the  uninteresting  manner  in  which 
teachers  conduct  their  class-room  work,  and  whatever  produces 
absence  from  school  is  sufficient  cause  for  failure  in  school 
promotion. 

Besides  the  forces  discussed  above  as  causes  of  retardation, 


14  THE  P8YCH0L0  GICAL  CLINIC. 

physical  defects  in  school  children,  over-crowding,  lack  of  a  com- 
pulsory attendance  law,  or  the  non-enforcement  of  the  same,  and 
many  others  are  contributory  to  slow  movement  through  the  grades. 
However,  there  is  no  statistical  evidence  bearing  upon  the  gravity 
of  each  of  these. 

Summary  on  Causes  of  Retardation. 

Failure  of  promotion  is  the  prime  cause  of  retardation. 

Failure  of  promotion  is  produced  by  irregular  attendance, 
late  entrance,  early  leaving,  poor  teaching,  too  much 
school  work,  lack  of  capacity,  indifference,  physical 
defects,  etc. 

Most  of  the  failures  take  place  in  the  early  grades,  between 
70  and  90  per  cent  before  the  sixth  grade. 

Out  of  every  hundred  making  three-fourths  time  from  14 
to  18  fail  and  from  82  to  86  are  promoted. 

A  relatively  larger  number  of  non-promoted  pupils  in  the 
high  school  than  in  the  elementary  school  make  three- 
fourths  time  or  more. 

Leaving  early  is  one  and  one-half  times  as  potent  as  late 
entrance  in  producing  non-promotions. 

While  poor  teaching  and  lack  of  capacity  and  too  much  school 
work  are  very  important  factors  in  bringing  about  the 
condition  of  retardation,  their  relative  effects  are  hard 
to  estimate. 


II. 


Acceleration. 

In  all  the  discussion  on  the  subject  of  retardation  scarcely 
any  consideration  has  been  given  to  the  neutralizing  force  of 
acceleration  or  double  promotions.  There  may  be  much  of  it  in 
larger  school  units  as  stated  by  Thorndike  (4),  Greenwood  (5) 
and  Wagner  (6),  but  in  the  smaller  ones  its  effect  in  offsetting 
failures  is  insignificant. 

In  the  Elkton  schools,  of  the  total  number  of  units  (2221) 
made  by  295  pupils,  19  were  units  of  plus  progress;  and  of  3938 
units  of  all  kinds  made  by  1051  pupils,  26  were  units  of  plus 
progress.  In  either  case  they  represent  less  than  1  per  cent  of 
the  whole  number  of  units.  Special  inquiry,  moreover,  reveals 
the  fact  that  more  than  one-half  of  these  double  promotions  were 
the  result  of  work  done  in  the  summer  under  private  tutors. 
Double  promotions  made  under  such  conditions  are  merely  evi- 
dence of  ambition  and  ability  on  the  part  of  the  pupils  making 
them,  as  testified  by  the  fact  that  approximately  80  per  cent  of 
such  pupils  reached  the  high  school.  That  there  is  not  in  many 
schools  more  promotion  during  the  year  on  account  of  special 
fitness,  is  largely  due  to  the  fact  that  there  is  no  person  who  will 
assume  the  authority  to  put  pupils  up  on  trial.  There  is  too  little 
of  this  sort  of  necessary  supervision  in  our  schools,  especially  in 
the  grades  where  it  is  most  needed. 

Rate  of  Progress  through  the  Grades. 

By  the  rate  of  progress  is  meant  the  rate  at  which  the  average 
pupil  passes  through  the  grades.  It  is  evident  that  for  the  indi- 
vidual this  rate  varies,  being  dependent  upon  the  ratio  of  failures 
to  promotions. 

If  a  pupil  completed  five  grades  of  work  in  iive  years,  or 
eight  grades  in  eight  years,  i.e.  a.  grade  for  each  year  in  school, 
we  would  classify  him  as  normal ;  if  he  did  the  same  amount  of 
work  in  less  than  that  time,  as  supernormal ;  and  if  in  more  than 

(15) 


16  THE  PSYCHOLOGICAL  CLINIC. 

that  time,  as  subnormal.  Of  the  295  pupils  under  consideration, 
according  to  this  classification,  2  would  be  supernormal,  23  normal, 
and  270  subnormal.  It  will  be  seen  that  a  very  small  per  cent 
of  pupils  pass  through  the  grades  at  a  normal  rate  of  speed.  Per- 
haps it  would  be  well  to  classify  all  who  reach  the  high  school  with 
only  one  failure  as  normal,  for  it  is  doubtless  true  that  the 
majority  of  such  pupils  have  failed  once.  From  this  point  of 
view,  the  requirements  of  the  course  of  study  might  even  be 
considered  supernormal. 

Table  1A*  gives  the  average  of  each  kind  of  units  and  the 
average  total  for  each  year.  For  example,  the  pupils  in  the 
eighth  year  of  school  have  completed  4.79  grades,  whereas  they 
should  have  completed  seven  grades.  In  the  eleventh  year  those 
still  in  school  have  completed  7.74  grades  instead  of  ten.  At  the 
same  rate  it  would  require  the  pupils  in  the  eighth  year  approx- 
imately 14.6  years  to  complete  ten  grades,  and  those  in  the 
eleventh  year  13  years  to  complete  the  same  number  of  grades. 
It  is  clear  that  the  greatly  retarded  ones  in  the  eighth  year  have 
dropped  out  before  the  eleventh  year,  as  is  evidenced  by  the  dif- 
ferences in  time  necessary  to  complete  the  ten  grades. 

Taken  altogether  the  295  pupils  made  1513  units  of  normal 
and  plus  progress  in  2202  units  of  time,  or  an  average  of  1.45 
years  for  a  grade.  At  this  rate  it  would  require  the  average 
pupil  14.5  years  to  finish  ten  grades.  Pupils  moving  at  this  rate 
through  the  grades  do  not  graduate.  Those  in  school  in  1908-09 
have  completed  1254  units  of  normal  and  plus  progress  in  1627 
units  (years)  of  time,  which  is  equivalent  to  an  average  of  10 
grades  in  13  years.  This  is  probably  too  low  a  rate  of  progress 
for  the  system  over  a  period  of  time,  14.5  years  being  more 
nearly  correct.  Due  weight  is  given  to  the  fact  that  the  pupils 
in  school  in  1908-09  have  not  been  in  this  system  from  the  time 
they  first  began  school.  Consequently,  many  of  the  units  of  minus 
progress  made  in  the  early  grades  are  not  included  in  calculating 
the  rate  of  progress  for  those  pupils. 

Ay  res  shows  (8)  that  "the  average  child  in  the  average  city 
school  system  progresses  through  the  grades  at  the  rate  of  eight 
grades  in  ten  years."  On  the  same  average  such  a  child  would 
complete  ten  grades  in  approximately  12.5  years,  or  two  years  less 
than  the  average  child  in  the  Elkton  system.  There  can  be  no 
question  that  the  rate  of  progress  will  vary  with  the  system. 
According  to  the  Ayres  method  it  would  require  11.2  years  for 

*  See  The  Psychological  Clinic  for  January  15,  1912,  p.  255. 


RATE  OF  PROGRESS. 


17 


Aurora,  111.,  and  for  Erie,  Pa.,  16.6  years,  for  the  completion 
of  ten  grades. 

Leaving  School. 

Pupils  leaving  school  come  under  three  heads, — graduates, 
those  leaving  to  enter  another  school,  and  those  dropping  out 
finally  before  graduation  from  the  schools. 

The  graduates  of  a  system  represent  its  finished  product ;  and 
the  larger  the  number  of  these,  other  things  being  equal,  the  more 
efficient  is  the  system.  That  this  finished  product  is  very  small 
in  proportion  to  the  raw  material  is  generally  known.  Out  of 
our  295  beginners,  only  8.5  per  cent  graduated,  that  is,  approx- 
imately 17  out  of  every  200  finished  the  course. 

In  order  to  estimate  roughly  the  per  cent  of  graduates  for 
eleven  years,  a  number  equal  to  one-eleventh  of  the  whole  number 
of  beginners  has  been  taken  as  a  basis.  The  reason  for  this  is 
that  the  number  of  beginners  is  about  equal  to  one-half  the  num- 
ber of  enrolments  in  the  first  grade  for  the  eleven  years.  The 
number  of  beginners  is  555,  one-eleventh  of  which  is  50.5.  The 
number  of  graduates  during  this  time  is  172,  an  average  of  15.6 
per  year,  or  31  per  cent  completing  the  course.  If  the  rate  of 
progress  is  as  we  have  shown  it  to  be,  it  is  evident  that  this  per 
cent  is  too  high.  The  explanation  is  to  be  found  in  the  fact 
that  44  per  cent  of  the  students  in  the  high  school  have  entered 
it  directly  from  other  schools,  and  that  a  fair  percentage  of  these 
remain  to  graduate.  It  is  probably  more  nearly  correct  to  say 
that  the  percentage  of  graduates  from  the  high  school  under 
normal  conditions  is  about  eight. 

Of  the  1514  pupils  in  school  during  eleven  years,  360  left 


TABLE 

IV. — NUMBER 

AND 

PER 

CENT 

ELIMINATED   BY  THE 

END 

OF   EACH 

GRADE. 

(Graduates  not  included.) 

Grades 

Elementary  School 

High  School 

1 

2 

3 

4 

5 

6 

7 

1 

2 

3 

4 

§.    r  Pupils 

8 

12 

42 

86 

122 

167 

196 

241 

261 

269 

270 

O  N  I  Per  cents . . . 

3 

4 

14 

29 

41 

56 

66 

81 

88 

91 

a92 

'  Pupils  (1-11 

of  number 

forllyrs.). 

1.55 

.55 

5.2 

6.6 

6.4 

6.7 

4.5 

12.3 

6.7 

4.5 

1.36 

L  Per  cents . . . 

3 

4 

14 

27 

40 

.  53 

62 

86 

100 

109 

112 

(a)  8.5  %  grad 

uated 

18 


THE  PSYCHOLOGICAL  CLINIC. 


TABLE  V. — PER  CENT  ELIMINATED  BY  THE  END  OP  EACH  YEAR  OF  AGE. 

(Graduates  not  included.) 


Ages 

8 

9 

10 

11 

12 

16 
19 

13 

37 
35 

14 

61 
55 

15 

77 
80 

16 

87 
97 

17 

90 
108 

18 

91 
110 

19 

a92 
112 

20 
112 

295  Group... 
1514  Group  b 

1 

1 

2 
1 

5 

5 

10 
10 

(a)  8.5  %  graduated. 

(6)  Calculated  as  in  Table  IV. 

to  enter  other  schools.  Thirteen  per  cent  of  the  360  transferred 
from  the  high  school  and  87  per  cent  from  the  elementary 
school.  On  the  other  hand,  44  per  cent  of  the  students  coming 
from  other  schools  enroll  in  the  high  school.  The  great  disparity 
in  percentages  of  pupils  leaving  and  entering  the  high  school,  is 
to  be  accounted  for  by  the  fact  that  most  of  the  pupils  leaving 
the  high  school  are  compelled  to  give  up  their  public  school  edu- 
cation altogether. 

The  discussion  of  the  vast  number  of  pupils  who  actually 
quit  the  grades  and  leave  unfinished  the  education  which  the  state 
provides,  will  centre  around  two  questions:  (1)  In  what  grades 
and  at  what  ages  do  the  pupils  leave  school?  (2)  What  are  the 
causes  for  this  dropping  out? 

The  percentages  in  table  IV  answer  the  first  of  these  ques- 
tions. It  will  be  seen  that  with  both  groups  of  pupils,  295  and 
1514,  the  eliminating  process  begins  early  in  the  grades,  being 
heaviest  in  the  fourth,  fifth  and  sixth  grades,  and  in  the  first 
year  of  the  high  school.  In  the  last  grade  mentioned  there  is  an 
elimination  of  24  per  cent  in  the  large  group.  The  same  pecul- 
iarity is  manifested  in  table  V,  which  gives  the  elimination  by 
ages,  where  25  per  cent  drop  out  at  fifteen,  and  17  per  cent  at 
sixteen.  This  large  amount  of  elimination  in  the  first  year  of 
the  high  school  and  at  the  ages  of  fifteen  and  sixteen  is  due  to 
the  large  number  (44  per  cent)  of  pupils  entering  the  high 
school  from  the  outside.  Up  to  the  last  grammar  grade  the  per- 
centages of  elimination  for  the  two  groups  are  approximately  the 
same  for  the  different  ages  and  grades. 

Ayres  (9)  and  Thorndike  (10)  express  contradictory 
opinions  on  a  fundamental  fact  concerning  elimination  in  the 
early  grades.  The  former  contends  that  "there  is  abundant  evi- 
dence that  the  general  tendency  of  our  schools  is  to  hold  practically 
all  of  the  pupils  to  the  sixth  grade,"  while  the  latter  believes 
that  "pupils  leave  in  considerable  numbers  from  almost  the  begin- 
ning of  the  elementary  school  course."    No  doubt  there  are  sys- 


RATE  OF  PROGRESS.  19 

terns  which  will  furnish  evidence  for  each  opinion.  In  the 
Elkton  schools  the  figures  corroborate  the  fact  that  many  pupils 
leave  in  the  early  grades,  and  it  is  probably  true  that  this  is 
the  general  tendency  throughout  the  schools  of  Maryland,  outside 
of  Baltimore.  In  the  former  there  is  no  compulsory  attendance 
law  to  hold  them  to  a  specified  age.  Consequently,  many  leave 
who  would  continue  longer  in  the  grades  of  systems  where  such 
a  law  is  enforced.  If  the  failures  are  very  heavy  in  the  first 
six  grades,  elimination  may  be  concealed  by  the  seeming  equality 
of  these  grades;  but  the  natural  inference  that  there  is  little  or 
no  dropping  out  there  would  be  unjustified.  Thorndike  shows  an 
elimination  of  60  per  cent  by  the  last  grammar  grade,  Ayres  49 
per  cent,  while  in  Elkton  approximately  66  per  cent  have 
dropped  out  before  the  high  school  is  reached.  The  larger  per- 
centages of  elimination  in  the  earlier  grades  in  these  schools,  as 
compared  with  other  studies,  may  be  partly  chargeable  to  the 
absence  of  a  compulsory  attendance  law  and  partly  to  the  large 
number  of  failures  in  these  grades. 

In  calculating  the  number  of  pupils  retained  to  the  several 
grades  both  Ayres  and  Thorndike  have  used  as  a  basis  a  number 
of  beginners  variously  estimated.  Applied  to  the  Elkton  statis- 
tics the  Ayres'  method  gives  a  number  of  beginners  too  small  by 
10  per  cent,  while  the  number  obtained  by  the  first  of  Thorn- 
dike's  methods  is  too  large  by  42  per  cent,  and  by  his  second, 
by  about  8  per  cent.  The  latter  investigator  does  not  state  which 
method  would  be  applicable  to  small  systems.  If  the  first  of  the 
two  were  used  the  inferences  based  on  the  results  would  have 
little  or  no  value.  Ayres'  method  of  calculating  the  beginners 
gives  a  number  not  far  from  the  true  one  in  systems  where  the 
migratory  movement  of  the  population  is  not  large.  If,  however, 
unusual  conditions  of  change  prevail  in  a  school  population,  it 
will  be  difficult  to  determine  the  true  retention  and  elimination 
in  the  grades  except  by  having  exact  data  as  the  basis  for  such 
calculation. 

Summary  on  Leaving  School. 

Approximately  eight  out  of  every  hundred  beginners  remain 
to  graduate. 

Eighty-seven  out  of  every  hundred  transfers  are  from  the 
elementary  schools. 

About  three  and  one-half  times  as  many  pupils  enter  the 
Elkton  high  school  from  the  outside  as  leave  it  to  go  elsewhere. 


20  THE  PSYCHOLOGICAL  CLINIC. 

Elimination  forces  are  operative  in  all  the  elementary 
grades,  being  strongest  in  the  fourth,  fifth  and  sixth  grades. 

Approximately  66  per  cent  of  the  pupils  have  left  school 
before  the  first  high  school  year  is  reached. 

Causes  of  Elimination. 

This  brings  us  to  the  second  question,  What  are  the  causes 
for  this  dropping  out  process? 

Retardation  is  both  an  effect  and  a  cause.  Irregular  atten- 
dance, incapacity,  late  entrance,  etc.,  produce  it,  and  in  turn 
it  is  the  most  potent  cause  of  elimination.  Whenever  the  work 
of  the  grade  must  be  repeated,  indifference  is  often  engendered, 
a  dislike  for  work  follows,  and  the  pupil  leaves.  It  is,  indeed, 
rare  that  a  pupil  will  remain  to  complete  the  high  school  course 
who  has  failed  more  than  twice.  If  we  assume  that  he  enters 
at  the  age  of  six  and  fails  twice,  he  will  be  almost  twenty  years 
of  age  when  he  graduates.  Boys,  in  particular,  have  no  inclina- 
tion to  remain  in  the  secondary  school  until  twenty-one.  By 
applying  the  age-grade  method  to  the  622  pupils  leaving  finally 
in  eleven  years,  it  is  found  that  60  per  cent  are  retarded  as 
compared  with  31  per  cent  for  the  whole  number  in  school  for 
the  same  time.  Again,  of  these  same  pupils  the  average  number 
of  units  of  minus  progress  for  those  leaving  is  1.14  and  for  the 
whole  number  in  school  .89.  Here  is  evidence,  then,  that  retarda- 
tion brought  about  through  failure  to  make  promotion,  is  an 
important  cause  of  leaving  school. 

A  second  important  cause  of  elimination  is  age.  Of  the  270 
pupils  leaving  school  the  largest  proportion,  21  per  cent,  drop 
out  in  the  eighth  year.  This  brings  the  child  to  the  age  of 
fourteen  or  fifteen,  the  age  at  which  the  largest  per  cent  of 
pupils  leave  school.  Pupils  will  remain  in  school  during  their 
early  years,  despite  failures  to  accomplish  the  work,  but  when  they 
reach  their  thirteenth,  fourteenth  or  fifteenth  year  and  find  them- 
selves in  the  lower  grade,  they  see  the  hopelessness  of  their  attempt 
to  finish  the  course,  and  if  most  of  their  companions  have  left 
school,  or  are  in  the  higher  grades,  they  leave  to  take  up  some 
occupation  in  which  they  can  do  something.  In  schools  where 
an  effective  compulsory  attendance  law  precludes  leaving  school 
until  fourteen,  large  numbers  drop  out  of  the  elementary  school 
at  this  age.  Retention  to  this  age,  however,  has  an  effect  of  tiding 
over  the  critical  period  for  many  boy  and  girls,  with  the  result 
that  they  remain  to  complete  the  course.  This  fine  influence  is 
lost  to  the  schools  where  the  statute  books  contain  no  such  act. 


RATE  OF  PROGRESS.  21 

There  are  many  other  conditions  which  indirectly  are  the 
cause  of  pupils  leaving  school.  Many  of  these,  such  as  ill  health, 
needed  at  home,  sickness  of  others,  etc.,  are  merely  the  last  straw. 
Forces  have  long  been  at  work  impelling  to  this  final  day  in 
school.  So  long  as  the  centripetal  forces  towards  the  school  are 
stronger  in  the  aggregate  than  the  centrifugal  forces  away  from 
it,  the  child  remains.  But  once  the  balance  begins  to  swing  tne 
other  way,  it  moves  rapidly  and  is  hard  to  check  in  its  course. 
That  this  ultimate  elimination  in  nine  out  of  ten  cases  is  not 
the  result  of  any  one  impelling  cause,  admits  of  no  doubt.  An 
accumulation  of  gathering  forces,  as  the  pupil  wends  his  way 
along  the  school  course,  is  the  real  cause  of  leaving.  The  home 
and  school  and  society  in  general  are  all  more  or  less  responsible 
for  the  final  outcome,  leaving  school. 

Measuring  the  Efficiency  of  a  School  System. 

Many  methods  have  been  adopted  for  comparing  the  relative 
merits  of  different  school  systems;  oftentimes  a  method  is  advo- 
cated merely  because  of  the  favorable  showing  it  makes  for  the 
system  interested.  As  soon  as  it  fails  to  do  this  it  falls  into 
disuse.  Frequently  a  system  boasts  of  the  large  number  of  mem- 
bers in  its  graduating  class,  or  the  number  of  the  first  year  of 
the  high  school  who  reach  the  last  year,  or  the  per  cent  the 
number  in  the  last  year  of  the  high  school  is  of  the  whole  number 
in  the  school.  All  these  provide  means  of  comparing  some  feature 
of  one  system  with  the  same  feature  of  another,  but  they  do  not 
accurately  determine  what  the  real  efficiency  of  the  system  is. 

Ayres  (11)  has  proposed  a  method  for  estimating  the  effi- 
ciency of  a  system  which  seems  at  first  glance  to  offer  a  fair  basis 
for  comparison.  Two  factors  are  considered:  first,  the  per  cent 
of  output  on  the  basis  of  one  thousand  beginners,  which  gives 
efficiency  from  the  point  of  view  of  product;  and  secondly,  the 
per  cent  the  ideal  number  of  pupils  is  of  the  actual  number 
necessary  to  produce  the  output,  which  gives  the  efficiency  from 
the  point  of  view  of  plant  economy.  The  first  of  these  multiplied 
by  the  second  expresses  the  index  of  efficiency  of  the  system. 
That  is,  if  a  school  has  in  its  eighth  grade,  or  last  year  of  the 
elementary  school,  for  every  one  thousand  beginners,  four  hun- 
dred pupils,  the  first  factor  of  efficiency  would  be  represented  by 
40  per  cent.  If  instead  of  eight  thousand  pupils  in  the  eight 
grades,  there  are  nine  thousand,  then  the  efficiency  from  the 
second  point  of  view  would  be  88.8  per  cent.     The  product  of 


22  THE  PSYCHOLOGICAL  CLINIC. 

these  two  gives  35.5  per  cent  as  the  index  of  efficiency  for 
the  school. 

Granting  then  that  Mr.  Ayres'  methods  of  obtaining  the 
number  of  beginners  and  the  number  reaching  the  last  grade  of 
the  elementary  school  would  give  approximately  the  correct  results 
for  a  school  system  where  no  pupils  entered  from  the  outside  and 
none  left  to  enter  other  schools,  a  just  comparison  of  the  efficiency 
of  different  systems  could  be  made. 

But  do  all  the  children  who  begin  in  a  school  system  remain 
in  it  until  they  leave  finally?  Is  the  number  that  enters  the 
schools  of  any  community,  borough,  or  township,  from  other 
schools  of  any  considerable  magnitude?  The  answer  to  the  first 
question  must  be  in  the  negative ;  not  only  do  they  not  remain  in 
the  system,  but  a  very  large  percentage  of  them  leave  to  enter  other 
schools.  Of  the  1514  different  pupils  who  were  in  the  Elkton 
schools  during  eleven  years,  360,  or  24  per  cent,  left  to  enter 
other  schools ;  46,  or  3  per  cent  of  these  were  high  school  pupils, 
and  314,  or  21  per  cent,  were  from  the  elementary  grades.  It 
must  be  borne  in  mind  here  that  of  these  1514  pupils  360  of 
them  were  still  in  school  in  September  of  1909,  so  that  the  basis 
on  which  these  percentages  are  estimated  is  too  large.  If  they 
were  calculated  on  a  basis  of  1514  minus  360,  or  1154,  the  results 
would  be  4  and  27  per  cent  respectively.  Here,  then,  it  is  evident 
that  many  pupils  leave  one  system  to  enter  another,  and  that 
most  of  the  transferring  is  among  the  elementary  grades. 

Now  for  the  second  question :  Is  the  number  that  enters  from 
other  schools  of  any  considerable  magnitude?  Out  of  the  1514 
pupils  just  referred  to,  591  or  39  per  cent,  came  from  outside 
schools.  Of  this  last  number  330,  or  22  per  cent,  entered  the 
elementary  grades,  and  261,  or  17  per  cent,  entered  the  high 
school. 

This  estimate  does  not  allow  for  the  fact  that  367  of  the 
522  pupils  in  the  school  in  1898-99  were  there  before  that  year. 
If  this  number  be  deducted  from  the  1514,  and  the  difference, 
1147  be  taken  as  a  basis,  the  pupils  entering  from  other  schools 
will  be  29  and  23  per  cent  respectively. 

If  the  conditions  shown  to  be  true  in  the  Elkton  schools 
prevail  in  other  systems,  and  there  is  every  reason  to  believe  they 
do,  for  this  is  a  community  in  which  the  population  makes  no 
more  than  the  average  change  from  year  to  year,  then  the  question 
arises:  What  system  does  Ayres'  index  of  efficiency  measure? 
If  39  per  cent  of  the  pupils  in  the  school  are  from  other  systems, 


RATE  OF  PROGRESS.  23 

his  method  gives  a  value  which  is  made  up  of  the  elements  good 
and  bad  of  numerous  systems.  From  what  systems  these  pupils 
came,  and  how  many  from  each,  are  questions  that  a  lack  of 
data  prevents  our  answering.  It  is  probable  that  many  of  the 
pupils  who  enter  a  highly  organized  system,  suffer  more  in  the 
system  from  which  they  come  than  they  would  during  the  same 
period  in  the  one  they  enter.  This  being  the  case,  does  the  index 
of  efficiency  determined  by  the  method  described  justly  estimate  a 
system's  worth?  It  seems  evident  that  such  a  procedure  would 
place  responsibility  on  the  wrong  shoulders. 

Some  plan  is  necessary  that  will  show  what  the  system 
has  done  and  is  doing  for  the  pupils  for  the  length  of  time  they 
have  been  under  its  influence.  What  would  be  better  than  all 
else  from  the  point  of  view  of  the  public  school  system  in  general, 
would  be  to  have  a  complete  record  of  each  individual  pupil  in 
order  that  the  effect  of  the  whole  educational  process  on  the  child 
might  be  known.  This,  in  our  present  condition  of  school  records, 
is  beyond  our  power  to  measure,  but  something  can  be  done  in 
the  way  of  determining  the  effect  of  the  different  factors  of  a 
system  on  the  pupils  within  it. 

It  has  been  shown  in  previous  sections  on  retardation  and 
leaving  school,  that  failure  of  promotion  produces  retardation, 
and  that  elimination  is  due  to  a  high  degree  of  retardation,  or 
frequent  failures,  or  in  other  words,  that  the  larger  the  number 
of  units  of  minus  progress  as  compared  with  that  of  normal  and 
plus  progress  combined,  the  older  the  pupils  become  in  the  lower 
grades,  and  the  greater  will  be  the  per  cent  of  elimination  in 
these  grades. 

Moreover,  the  more  pupils  drop  out  in  the  lower  grades  the 
fewer  there  will  be  in  the  first  and  subsequent  years  of  the 
high  school.  Since  there  is  this  definite  relation  between  the 
numbers  of  these  different  kinds  of  units  of  progress,  the  efficiency 
of  a  system  may  well  be  measured  by  a  per  cent  obtained  by 
cMvidiug  the  combined  number  of  units  of  normal  and  plus 
progress  by  the  sum  of  the  units  of  normal  and  minus  progress. 
For  example,  the  1514  different  pupils  who  were  in  the  Elkton 
schools  during  the  eleven  years  made  3001  units  of  normal  and 
plus  progress  and  3912  units  of  normal  and  minus  progress. 
The  former  divided  by  the  latter  gives  77  as  the  index  of  efficiency 
for  the  system  during  eleven  years.  While  this  illustrates  well 
enough  the  method  of  obtaining  the  per  cent,  it  would  be  imprac- 
ticable to  apply  it  to  so  long  a  period  of  time.     What  every 


24  THE  PSYCHOLOGICAL  CLINIC. 

superintendent  of  schools  should  be  able  to  do  in  any  given  year, 
is  to  report  upon  what  his  system  has  done  for  the  pupils  who 
have  been  under  its  influence. 

A  study  of  the  records  of  those  pupils  who  are  in  school 
at  the  beginning  of  1908-9  and  who  have  been  in  the  present 
system  during  previous  years  reveals  the  fact  that  the  total  number 
of  units  of  normal  and  plus  progress  is  1254  as  compared  with 
1627  units  of  normal  and  minus  progress.  This  gives  as  the 
index  of  efficiency  77,  or  practically  the  same  as  that  for  the 
eleven  years. 

Still  another  way  of  showing  the  efficiency  of  a  system  is 
to  find  the  relation  between  the  same  factors  named  above  for 
all  the  pupils  in  the  school  for  the  year.  This  might  be  termed 
the  yearly  efficiency  of  the  school  system,  as  distinguished  from 
the  period  efficiency  which  represents  the  relation  of  the  total 
number  of  units  of  normal  and  plus  progress  to  the  number  of 
units  of  normal  and  minus  progress  for  the  period  of  years  chosen. 
As  an  example  of  the  application  of  this  method  to  determine 
yearly  efficiency,  the  total  number  of  units  of  normal  and  plus 
progress  combined  and  of  normal  and  minus  progress  are  for 
the  year  1908-9,  333  and  436,  respectively.  By  dividing  the 
former  number  by  the  latter  the  index  of  efficiency  is  found  to 
be  76.4. 

Of  the  three  ways  of  applying  this  method,  the  last  is  the 
most  practicable,  for  it  is  the  most  economical  from  the  point 
of  view  of  time  and  labor.  Moreover,  it  offers  a  facile  means, 
not  only  of  comparing  one  system  with  another,  but  also  of  com- 
paring the  efficiency  of  the  same  system  from  year  to  year. 

Summary. 

In  the  present  state  of  school  records  the  efficiency  of  a 
school  system  cannot  be  measured  by  a  ratio  between  the  number 
of  beginners  and  the  number  of  pupils  reaching  the  last  grade 
of  the  elementary  or  high  school,  because  of  the  large  percentage 
of  pupils  entering  the  system  from  the  outside,  and  leaving  to 
enter  schools  elsewhere. 

The  ratio  of  the  number  of  units  of  normal  and  plus  progress 
to  the  number  of  units  of  normal  and  minus  progress  will  give 
an  adequate  method  for  measuring  efficiency. 

Either  yearly  or  period  efficiency  of  the  system  may  be 
measured. 

The  efficiency  of  the  Elkton  school  system  is  approxi- 
mately .77. 


RATE  OF  PROGRESS.  25 

Suggestions  to  Superintendents. 

In  the  gathering  and  study  of  the  statistics  in  this  investi- 
gation a  few  facts  have  stood  out  so  impressively  that  it  seems 
worth  while  to  present  them  for  the  benefit  of  those  engaged  in 
the  organization  of  schools. 

First,  the  necessity  of  some  other  method  of  promotion  than 
that  used  in  many  of  our  large  school  systems  to-day  seems  im- 
perative. It  is  still  the  custom  in  practically  all  the  smaller  towns 
and  in  a  large  number  of  cities  to  make  promotions  only  at  the 
end  of  the  year.  That  this  is  a  serious  factor  in  producing 
retardation  there  can  be  no  doubt. 

If  late  entrance  or  early  leaving  is  not  due  to  actual  absence 
from  school,  but  merely  to  a  transfer  from  one  school  to  another, 
it  is  not  so  likely  to  result  in  failure  of  promotion.  But  if  children 
are  out  of  school  on  account  of  sickness  or  because  of  being  needed 
at  home  in  the  fall  or  spring,  they  will  fail  to  make  the  next 
higher  grade  at  the  end  of  the  year.  Of  the  701  failures  made 
by  295  pupils,  134  were  made  by  pupils  who  entered  late  or  left 
early.  Of  these  134  failures,  37  were  related  to  late  entrance,  and 
97  to  leaving  early.  Investigation  reveals  the  fact  that  111  of  the 
134  enrolments  entering  late  or  leaving  early  were  present  either 
for  the  first  half  or  for  the  last  half  of  the  year.  Previously,  it 
has  been  shown  that  85  per  cent  of  those  making  90  per  cent 
of  attendance  are  promoted.  Therefore,  if  we  take  85  per  cent 
of  111  we  have  94  pupils  who  would  have  been  promoted  if  the 
year's  work  had  been  divided  into  two  separate  units,  one  to  be 
completed  during  the  first  half  and  the  other  during  the  last 
half  of  the  school  year.  In  all  there  were  made  by  these  295 
pupils  701  units  of  minus  progress.  Promotions  made  as 
described  above  would  have  decreased  this  number  94,  or  13 
per  cent.  The  system  that  has  double  promotions  does  more  than 
make  a  saving  of  13  per  cent  of  the  number  of  units  of 
minus  progress  among  those  pupils  that  make  90  per  cent  of 
attendance  for  a  half  a  year.  There  are  some  pupils  who  make 
as  low  as  80,  70,  and  60  per  cent  of  attendance  and  yet  are 
promoted.  A  part  of  these  too  would  be  rescued  from  the  school 
failures  by  the  system  of  double  promotions. 

In  this  connection  it  may  be  suggested  that  a  special  class 
should  be  formed  in  every  school  to  give  additional  instruction  to 
pupils  behind  their  grades.  Many  failures  would  never  be  made 
if  each  school  system  provided  such  a  means  of  assisting  the  pupils 
at  the  time  when  they  most  need  it.    Many  a  child  has  received 


26  THE  PSYCHOLOGICAL  CLINIC. 

the  first  start  toward  elimination  when  upon  returning  to  school 
after  an  unavoidable  detention  at  home  he  has  been  held  respon- 
sible for  previous  work  without  any  assistance  from  the  teachers 
or  others.  The  special  class  or  special  teacher  would  have  removed 
this  cause  for  future  failures  and  consequent  early  leaving  of 
school. 

A  second  matter  which  needs  attention  is  examinations.  In 
some  few  schools  examinations  have  been  done  away  with  because 
of  the  feeling  that  they  are  unnecessary.  To  the  writer  they 
seem  to  have  one  significant  implication ;  that  the  average  teacher 
is  incapable  for  one  reason  or  other  of  judging  whether  or  not 
a  child  is  fitted  to  pass  to  the  next  higher  grade. 

In  order  to  throw  some  light  upon  this  question  a  special 
study  has  been  made  of  1514  pupils.  It  appears  that  509  includ- 
ing the  first  and  second  grades  (239  without  them),  did  not 
attend  up  until  the  time  of  final  examinations  and  yet  were  found 
in  school  the  next  year,  either  in  the  grade  of  the  previous  year 
or  in  a  higher  one;  171  of  these  including  the  first  and  second 
grades  (80  without  them),  were  promoted.  That  is,  omitting 
pupils  of  the  first  and  second  grades,  17  per  cent  of  those  not 
attending  up  until  the  time  of  examinations  were  promoted  to 
the  next  higher  grades.  It  may  be  assumed  that  a  few  of  these 
did  take  the  examinations  at  the  beginning  of  the  following 
year,  but  this  was  not  a  usual  custom.  Since  no  system  of  exemp- 
tions is  in  vogue  in  the  Elkton  schools,  here  is  evidence  that 
many  pupils  are  promoted  either  on  trial,  or  in  some  manner 
make  their  way  into  the  next  higher  grade  without  having  to  take 
the  examinations  that  are  considered  all  important. 

The  third  and  perhaps  most  important  fact  that  has  been 
brought  out  in  this  study  is  the  utter  lack  of  data  necessary  for 
a  proper  study  of  school  problems.  A  need  for  a  uniform  record 
card  has  long  been  recognized  by  those  connected  with  educational 
matters,  and  many  such  cards  have  been  proposed.  In  this  inves- 
tigation the  writer  has  personally  gathered  and  collated  the  sta- 
tistics which  are  here  set  forth  in  tabular  form,  and  he  has  had 
abundant  opportunity  to  learn  what  a  record  card  should  contain. 
During  this  whole  study  note  has  been  made  of  what  facts  should 
be  recorded  on  such  a  card,  and  it  is  believed  that  the  cards 
here  proposed  give  all  the  practical  information  necessary  to 
determine  at  any  time  exactly  what  a  system  is  doing  for  the 
pupils  in  it,  and  what  it  has  done  for  them  in  the  past,  so  that  the 
index  of  efficiency  may  be  accurately  determined,  and  valid  com- 
parisons made  with  the  results  of  other  systems. 


RATE  OF  PROGRESS.  27 

The  transfer  card  suggested  here  seems  to  indicate  all  the 
information  that  one  system  should  send  to  and  immediately 
receive  from  another.  The  numbers  on  this  card  should  provide 
a  means  of  obtaining  any  additional  facts  that  might  be  neces- 
sary to  a  complete  history  of  the  child's  school  life. 

(Front) 

Record  card  of School 

(Address) 

Pupil's  name Pupil's  number  (in  this  system) 

(Last  name)     (First  name) 

Preceding  schools  with  pupil's  numbers  (in  order  from  first) _ 


Dates : _ Beginning  school Leaving  school 

(yr.  mo.  da.)  (yr.  mo.)  (yr.  mo.) 


O      htf  ^      J>  fc>      W      H      ^  ^      O      O     Causes  of  absence         Causes  of  non-prom. 

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B      a  * 

7*       ? 


(Back) 


Mental  record  Physical  record 


r^-1-*^    a>    e    a.  «    Sp  g    n>  tjj    a    J?       hntw  h-i    hH<*  i-H  ^  c    E    »    8°    ° 

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«    ltEl"qIft*«"  «  •;§    s»«- 


28  THE  PSYCHOLOGICAL  CLINIC. 

The  cards  proposed  here  are  the  result  of  educational  experi- 
ence covering  many  years  of  school  work.*  If  they  prove  to  be 
of  use  in  bettering  the  manner  of  keeping  our  school  records,  the 
writer  will  feel  repaid  for  the  amount  of  time  and  thought  he  has 
given  to  the  task. 


Transfer  card  of School 

(Address) 

Pupil's  number  in  system  just  left Name 

(Last  name)      (First  name) 

Preceding  schools  with  pupil's  numbers  (in  order  from  first) 


Dates :  Birth Beginning  school Leaving  school 

(yr.  mo.  da.)  (yr.  mo.)  (yr.  mo.) 


Grade  Present  standing  Physical  history  of  abnormalities 

Iff! I  Ifiiiliiilii      wrfpf lis! I 


F  g  p  I 


Fill  out,  detach,  and  send  to School 

(Address) 


Pupil's  number  (in  system  just  left) Name 

(Last  name)     (First  name) 
Pupil's  new  number  in  system  just  entering 

Grade  entered When 

(yr.  mo.  da.) 

Principal. 

REFERENCES. 

1  Aybes,  L.  P.    Laggards  in  Our  Schools.    N.  Y.  Charities  Pub.  Com.,  1909, 

p.  146. 

2  Lubton,  Fbeeman  E.    The  Psychological  Clinic,  Vol.  V,  p.  17. 

3  Aybes,  L.  P.    Laggards,  p.  45. 

4  Thobndike,  E.  L.    The  Psychological  Clinic,  Vol.  Ill,  p.  238. 

5  Greenwood,  J.  M.    Education,  Vol.  XXIX,  p.  280. 

6  Wagneb,  A.  E.    The  Psychological  Clinic,  Vol.  Ill,  p.  169. 

7  Repobts  of  the  State  Board  of  Education  for  Maryland,  1889  to  1910. 

8  Aybes,  L.  P.    Laggards,  p.  87. 

9  Aybes,  L.  P.    Laggards,  p.  70. 

10  Thobndike,  E.  L.    Elimination  of  Pupils  from  School.    Bulletin  of  U.  S. 

Bureau  of  Education,  1907,  p.  14. 

11  Aybes,  L.  P.    Laggards,  p.  175. 

■*J!iT*LfZ££  1J,.ilnM1>ted  t0  9^Tlea  A-  Wagner,  West  Chester  State  Normal 
School,  for  many  valuable  suggestions  and  criticisms  in  the  preparation  of  these 


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